“Tania Giannouli has her own special place in the rich and diverse world of contemporary music. I consciously didn't use the word "jazz" in this case because the European tradition of jazz improvisation is only one aspect of her music. Tania, a Greek living in Athens, has a thorough classical education and the ability to synthesise many cultural elements into an original whole.

You only have to listen to a few bars of her music to recognise her voice. It doesn't matter if it's a duet with Portuguese wind musician Paulo Chagas (Forest Stories, 2012), interacting with a larger ensemble on her 2015 release "Transcendence", or in a trio setting with Andreas Polyzogopoulos on trumpet and Kyriakos Tapakis on oud on "In Fading Light" (2020), you always know that you are listening to the music of Tania Giannouli. Slightly dreamy, always mysterious and ethereal, located somewhere between classical traditions, jazz and specifically pizzica-like character of Greek music. Few contemporary artists can boast such a strong creative personality.

After such an introduction, it is easy to guess the further conclusion. Giannouli's new album, SOLO, contains all the characteristic features of her style, which is all the more impressive since she only has the piano at her disposal. It all begins with the two longest compositions. From the sonoristic, dark clouds of sound in “Transportal" emerges an obsessively repeated melodic motif reminiscent of the Greek dance chasapiko. "Novelette" has a lighter colour palette, but even here, we find references to folklore, e.g. in the ornamentation of the right hand, which flows over the ostinato figure of the left hand.

The rest of the disc comprises miniatures, only a few exceeding six minutes, most oscillating around two to four minutes. Impressionistic scales and references to Greek tradition appear, and we also find, as in "Metal Snake" or "In-tone", piano preparations and the skilful use of muting the strings to create quasi-percussive effects. Most importantly, all these means are focused on achieving a clear goal, to create a personal musical fresco to stimulate the listener's imagination.

Individual pieces often exude an irresistible, overpowering beauty, moments capable of touching the listener's soul. But, as in Byzantine mosaics, the individual pebbles here make up the overall picture, a portrait of a world perceived through the sensory perception of the author. In her own words: "SOLO is a very personal journey, a story told without filters ... in which listeners can also find themselves". Nothing more, nothing less.

MAREK ROMANSKI for Jazz Forum